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Ram (1)

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Ram (2)

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ram ( רם , rām , "high," "exalted"):

(1) An ancestor of David (Rth 4:19 (Ἀρράν , Arrán ); Matthew 1:3 , Matthew 1:4 ( Ἀράμ , Arám ); in 1 Chronicles 2:9 he is called the "brother," but in 1 Chronicles 2:25 , the "son of Jerahmeel" (compare 1 Chronicles 2:27 ). Ram as the son of Hezron appears more likely than Ram the son of Jerahmeel, since, according to the narratives of 1 and 2 Samuel, David cannot have been a Jerahmeelite.

(2) Name of Elihu's family (Job 32:2 ). It is an open question as to whether Ram should be taken as a purely fictitious name, invented by the author of the Elihu speeches, or whether it is that of some obscure Arab tribe. In Genesis 22:21 Aram is a nephew of Buz (compare Elihu the Buzite), and the conjecture was at one time advanced that Ram was a contraction of Aram; but this theory is no longer held to be tenable. The suggestion that the initial a (the Hebrew letter, )א has been changed by a scribal error into h (the Hebrew letter, )ה is more acceptable. Rashi, the rabbinical commentator, takes the quaint position that Ram is identical with Abraham.